Everything about Jean-baptiste Colbert totally explained
Jean-Baptiste Colbert (
August 29,
1619 —
September 6,
1683) served as the
French minister of finance from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of
King Louis XIV. He was described by
Mme de Sévigné as "Le Nord" as he was cold and unemotional. His relentless hard work and thriftiness made him an esteemed minister. He achieved a reputation for his work of improving the state of French
manufacturing and bringing the
economy back from the brink of
bankruptcy. Historians note that, despite Colbert's efforts, France actually became increasingly
impoverished because of the King's excessive spending on
wars. Colbert worked to create a favourable
balance of trade and increase France's
colonial holdings. Historians of
mercantilism consider Colbert a key figure.
Colbert's
market reforms included the
importation of
Venetian glass and
Flemish cloth manufacturing to France. He also founded a royal
tapestry works at
Beauvais. Colbert worked to improve the
economy via
tariffs and the
construction of
internal improvements. In regard to foreign markets, Colbert aimed to ensure that the
French East India Company could obtain
coffee,
cotton,
dyewoods,
fur,
pepper, and
sugar. In addition, Colbert founded a French
merchant marine.
Colbert issued more than 150
edicts to
regulate the
guilds. One such
law had the intention of improving the quality of
cloth. The edict declared that if the authorities found a
merchant's cloth unsatisfactory on three separate occasions, they were to tie him to a post with the cloth attached to him.
Early life
Colbert's father operated as a clothier in his birthplace of
Reims,
France. He claimed to have
Scottish ancestry. A general (but unconfirmed) belief exists that he spent his early youth at a
Jesuit college, working for a
Parisian
banker, as well as working for the father of
Jean Chapelain. In 1640, at the age of 21, Colbert had the post of
commissaire ordinaire des guerres in the
war office; a position generally attributed to the marriage of an uncle to the sister of
Secretary of War Le Tellier. Colbert's father Nicolas, however, used his political position and wealth to purchase the title for his son. Colbert's role as commissaire was to inspect troops; this would become an important position and one that would propel him into notoriety in 1648 with the events of
the Fronde. In
1648, he married Marie Charron, a daughter of a member of the king's council. Her
dowry was 100,000
livres. The marriage contract also mentioned Colbert's 50,000
livres "deriving from his profession"
The Fronde and later revolts
The
Fronde lasted from
1647 to
1653. Twice in 1651 and 1652,
Cardinal Mazarin was forced into exile. Colbert served as an intermediary between the royal court, as it moved about in the provinces, Cardinal Mazarin in exile and Le Tellier, who was working to coordinate the war efforts in Spain and Paris simultaneously. It was at this time that Colbert's presence would soon become familiar with the powerful cardinal, the queen and her son
Louis XIV. In April
1655, Colbert published a notable letter in defence of the cardinal. In 1659, Colbert helped suppress the revolts in
Normandy,
Anjou and
Poitou, events which resulted in the execution of
Bonnesson.
The death of Mazarin and Colbert's rise
While Mazarin was in exile, Louis' trust in Colbert grew. In 1652 Colbert was asked to manage the affairs of the Cardinal while he was away. This new responsibility would detach Colbert from his other responsibility as
commissaire des guerres. Although Colbert wasn't a supporter of Mazarin in principle, he'd defend the cardinal's interests with unflagging devotion.
Colbert's earliest recorded attempt at tax reform came in the form of a
mémoire to Mazarin, showing that of the taxes paid by the people, not one-half reached the King. The paper also contained an attack upon the
Superintendent Fouquet. The
postmaster of Paris, a spy of Fouquet's, read the letter, leading to a dispute which Mazarin attempted to suppress.
In
1661, Mazarin died and Colbert "made sure of the King's favour" by revealing the location of some of Mazarin's hidden wealth. In January
1664 Colbert became the
Superintendent of buildings; in
1665 he became
Controller-General of Finances; in
1669, he became
Secrectary of State of the Navy; he also gained appointments as minister of
commerce, of the
colonies and of the
palace. In short, Colbert acquired power in every department except that of war.
A great financial and fiscal reform at once claimed all his energies. Not only the nobility, but many others who had no legal claim to exemption, paid no taxes; the bulk of the burden fell on the wretched country-folk. Supported by the young king
Louis XIV, Colbert aimed the first blow at the man accused of being the greatest of the royal embezzlers, the superintendent
Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet's fall, it should be noted, simultaneously secured Colbert's own advancement.
Economic reform
With the abolition of the office of superintendent and of many other offices dependent upon it, the supreme control of the finances became vested in a royal council. The sovereign functioned as its president; but Colbert, though for four years he only possessed the title of
intendant, operated as its ruling spirit, having had great personal authority conferred upon him by the king. One must not judge the career on which Colbert now entered without remembering the corruption of the previous financial administration. His ruthlessness in this case, dangerous precedent as it gave, seemed perhaps necessary; the council couldn't respect individual interests. When he'd severely punished guilty officials, he turned his attention to the fraudulent creditors of the government. Colbert had a simple method of operation. He repudiated some of the public loans, and cut off from others a percentage, which varied, at first according to his own decision, and afterwards according to that of the council which he established to examine all claims against the state.
Much more serious difficulties met his attempts to introduce equality in the pressure of the taxes on the various classes. To diminish the number of the privileged proved impossible, but Colbert firmly resisted false claims for exemption, and lightened the unjust direct taxation by increasing the indirect taxes, from which the privileged couldn't escape. At the same time he immensely improved the mode of collection.
Colbertism
Having thus introduced a measure of order and economy into the workings of the government, Colbert now called for the enrichment of the country by commerce. The state, through Colbert's
dirigiste policies, fostered manufacturing enterprises in a wide variety of fields. The authorities established new industries, protected inventors, invited in workmen from foreign countries, and prohibited French workmen from emigrating. To maintain the character of French goods in foreign markets, as well as to afford a guarantee to the home consumer, Colbert had the quality and measure of each article fixed by law, punishing breaches of the regulations by public exposure of the delinquent and by destruction of the goods concerned, and, on the third offence, by the
pillory. But whatever advantage resulted from this rule, the disadvantages it entailed more than outweighed them. Colbert prohibited the production of qualities which would have suited many purposes of consumption, and the odious supervision which became necessary involved great waste of time and a stereotyped regularity which resisted all improvements. Other parts of Colbert's schemes have met with less equivocal condemnation.
By his firm maintenance of the
corporation system, each industry remained in the hands of certain privileged
bourgeois; in this way, too, the system greatly discouraged improvement; while the lower classes found opportunities of advancement closed. With regard to international commerce Colbert suffered equally from lack of foresight: the tariffs he devised protected commerce to an extreme. He did, however, wisely consult the interests of internal commerce. Unable to abolish the duties on the passage of goods from
province to province, he did what he could to induce the provinces to equalise them. Currency exchange rates still remained between these provinces despite a policy focusing on the unification of French trade. His régime improved roads and canals.
Pierre Paul Riquet (1604–1680) planned and constructed the
Canal du Midi under Colbert's patronage. To encourage overseas trade with the
Levant,
Senegal,
Guinea and other places, Colbert granted privileges to companies, but, like the noted
French East India Company, all proved unsuccessful. The narrowness and rigidity of the government regulations significantly contributed to this collapse, as well as the failure of the colonies, upon which Colbert had bestowed a great deal of energy and political capital.
Religion
Even ecclesiastical affairs, though with these he'd no official concern, didn't altogether escape Colbert's attention. He took a subordinate part in the struggle between the king and the
papacy as to the royal rights over vacant
bishoprics; and he seems to have sympathised with the proposal that suggested seizing part of the wealth of the
clergy. In his hatred of idleness he ventured to suppress no less than seventeen
fêtes, and he'd a project for lessening the number of persons devoted to clerical and monastic life, by fixing the age for taking the vows some years later than the then customary time. He showed himself at first unwilling to interfere with
heresy, for he realised the commercial value of the
Huguenots (French Protestants), who were well represented among the merchant classes; but when the king resolved to make all France
Roman Catholic, he followed him and urged his subordinates to do all that they could to promote
conversions.
Culture
In art and literature Colbert took much interest. He possessed a remarkably fine private library, which he delighted to fill with valuable manuscripts from every part of Europe where France had placed a consul. He has the honour of having founded the
Academy of Sciences (now part of the
Institut de France), the
Paris Observatory, which he employed
Claude Perrault to build and brought
Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712) from Italy to superintend, the Academies
of Inscriptions and Medals,
of Architecture and
of Music, the
French Academy at Rome, and Academies at
Arles,
Soissons,
Nimes and many other towns. He reorganised the
Academy of Painting and Sculpture which Mazarin had established. He himself became a member of the
Académie française; and proposed one very characteristic rule with the intention of expediting the great
Dictionary, in which he'd a great interest: no one could count as present at any meeting unless he arrived before the hour of commencement and remained till the hour for leaving. In 1673 Colbert presided over the first exhibition of the works of living painters; and he enriched the
Louvre with hundreds of pictures and statues. He gave many pensions to men of letters, among whom we find
Molière,
Corneille,
Racine,
Boileau,
P D Huet (1630–1721) and
Antoine Varillas (1626–1696); and even foreigners, as
Huygens,
Carlo Dati the
Dellacruscan. Evidence exists to show that by this munificence he hoped to draw out praises of his sovereign and himself; but this motive certainly doesn't account for all the splendid, if in some cases specious, services that he rendered to literature, science and art.
Death
Colbert worked incessantly hard until his final hours. Working was his religion; he once pondered whether it was better to rise early and work or sleep very late and work. He concluded that rising early and sleeping late would be the ideal combination. However at the age of 68 he suffered from stomach aches which caused him much distress. He was reduced to eating moist bread dipped in chicken broth for his meals. By 69 he was bedridden and 4 days after his birthday he died. The surgeons that operated on him found that he was suffering from
kidney stones. A huge stone was found in his urinary tract, which would explain why he was in such writhing agony.
Quotes
- "It is simply, and solely, the abundance of money within a state [which] makes the difference in its grandeur and power." (MH - p.53)
- "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing"
Bibliography
Ames, Glenn J. Colbert, Mercantilism, and the French Quest for Asian Trade (1996)
Clément, Vie de Colbert, (Paris, 1846) » Lettres, instructions, et Memoires de Colbert, (nine volumes, Paris, 1861–82)
Histoire de Colbert et son administration, edited by Mademoiselle Clément, (Paris, 1874)
Gordault, Colbert, ministre de Louis XIV, (Tours, 1885)
Lavisse, Histoire de France, volume vii, part i, (Tours, 1905)
Sargent, Economic Policy of Colbert, (London, 1899), which contains a bibliography of works relating to Colbert and his time.
Trivia
Six ships of the French Navy bore his name in this honour:
A portrait of Jean-Baptiste Colbert hangs in the chamber of the United States House of Representatives.
A street in New Orleans (in the Lakeview neighborhood) of the former French colony of Louisiana, now part of the United States, is named after him.
In 1657, he purchased the Barony of Seignelay.
Of his children, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, Marquis de Seignelay followed his father as Secretary of State of the Navy while Jacques-Nicolas Colbert was Archbishop of Rouen.
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